1940-10-29 — Page 23

THE CHINA. MAIL, OCTOBER 29, 1940.

Page

CHINA MAI Looking Forward

WINDSOR HOUSE

NEW WORLDS

even in broadest outline. Nothing could be more unwise

or

NOVEMBER ALLY

whatever

In his last speech in the House over the world of food reserves than the planning of relations be-blems of transport, of housing and of Commons the Prime Minister destined for the relief of Hitler's 'tween food importing and food public works, and of industrial re- refused to embark on any discus- victims-among whom Mr. Chur-growing countries in such a way construction-would be a prudent To-day dictators

are sion of the shape which might be chill was careful to include the as to clear the channels of trate anticipation of needs which can

given to Europe after the war or people of Germany and Austria to regulate its even flow, and to certainly be foresten, ooking about for other of any "new securities" which so soon as Nazi power is over-remove the arbitrary interference political shape a liberated Europe worlds to conquer. But might be required. This caution thrown. But the problem of food of national

was clearly right. Nothing could supplies and nutrition is not limit-interest. hat is not because they be more unreal than the elabora-ed to the immediate needs of post-now for this task, and to extend war aims and of post-war inter- individual self-may assume, This is a more prac- To make preparationstical approach to the problem of lave finished one job and ton at the present time of hypo-war relief.

hetical political structures to fit will be more urgent after the war European reconstruction--to provising of political constitutions.

No International task the survey to other aspects of national cooperation than the de- re ready to go on with the situations which cannot be fore- ext. They need

seen new Worlds. And they need to than to undertake commitments hake them look as impor- or to encourage hopes whose ful- filment might prove either wholly ant as the one they are impracticable or incompatible ot conquering. They may we suffered from a plethora both with our larger purposes. In 1919 ide from their own popu-of political commitments and of tions how disappointed political theories about the way hey are with the way constructed. When arms are laid ritons are acting. But down at the end of the present ther peoples sense that devote our immediate energies to he promised attack on the practical needs of relief and reconstruction, and postpone any ritish outlying posses- attempt to build a more perman- ons is only a second-best cnt political framework until ubstitute, in the eyes of to emerge.

elcarer perspective has had time xis engineers, for quick onquest of the British!

les.

in which a new order should be

war, it may well be prudent

to

а

it

use

This is not to say that he Axis cannot make a should refrain, so long as hostili- But this does not mean that we t of trouble for the Brit-ties last, from looking towards h Empire. But the very As Mr. Churchill said last week, any goal beyond the end of them. tensity of the German "the road to victory may not be fort against Britain he quickly added that we have so long as we expect"; and though hows that Herr Hitler no right to count on this," hd his advisers know the prospect of a long war as an

would be equally wrong to hat their best hope of argument for refusing indefinitely inning this war lies in The well-worn saying that

to consider the problems of peace. rect rather than indir- time we won the War and lost the t action against British truth. The assumption that, unce peace contains a large measure of ower. Their best hope, the war is won, no further leader- bviously, is not material-ship or initiative will be required ing.

last

no

from British statesmen, and further effort or self-sacrifice from British people, is a dangerous form This is the point that of complacency. We have suffered cent meetings and dip-cause we had not made adequate much during the past months be- macy have emphasised. preparations to equip ourselves

for war. ogether with

To equip ourselves for revela-

peace is also a wise and necessary ons of surprisingly slight precaution. amage to British war re-

nited States, the facts ve ground for comfort, ough difficult days be head.

"FINE AS FIRE'

One moral which seems clearly

555

INVASION

PORT

Victory Of The Atlantic

Few

Mr. Churchill last week permilt- ted himself one further glimpse. into the future-the eloquent peroration in which he spoke of the growing community of interest between this country and the United States in the defence of freedom. But, this common inter- est will end with victory in this war, at any rate in its present form. Our Diplomatic Corres- pondent has drawn attention to the way in which German pro- paganda is already trying to sow mischief by deliberately exagger- ating the scope and prospects of military cooperation. More dan- gerous still is the small band of enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic which from time to time canvasses romantic schemes of world-wide political federation. Let us tell ourselves frankly that the United States have no inten: tion of concerning themselves in the political future of any Euro- pean country or of cooperating in any new political order outside the Western Hemisphere. "Where we can count with confidence on the prospect of American colla- boration and' American generosity after the war is in the field economic and social reconstruc- tion; and this is yet another rea- son for thinking in the first in- stance in these terms.

of

The approach to the economic needs of Europe cannot be made in isolation from the needs of this country. The intensification of war effort and the increasingly complete mobilisation of our re- sources render all the more im- perative 2 far-reaching pro- gramme of social reconstruction in Great Britain. A problem of enormous dimensions will con- front us immediately on the ces- sation of hostilities. We cannot simply slip back into "peace. A world-wide effort in the shipyards, and

large part of the vast war machine could not be cut off.

will come to a standstill almost sources of supply

over night; for the production of our future as any pitched battle denly lose its meaning and pur- It was a victory as important to munitions of all kinds will sud- vast quantities of aeroplanes and ever fought between flects on the pose. The readaptation of the surface, and nothing that has hap whole machinery of production pened since has undermined. Its from its war-time programme significance.

-

our

I

to

rves, and of increasing to emerge from the experience of d to Britain from the will have to be applied to the con- the war is the qualification which cept of neutrality in the crowded European continent. The smaller countries of Europe will rightly been the outstanding naval event The victory of the Atlantic has and naturally want to continue to of the year and yet it has never paddle their own canoes, But, as been officially announced. a correspondent remarked in these details about it are known out columns a few days ago, they will side the Admiralty, and the world London does not imag-have henceforth to do so in con- at large is hardly aware of what e that its trial is over ur voy. Nor is this merely a neces- has happened. Nevertheless that sary measure of common defence.victory has played a considerable en diminishing. Britain If Europe is to become once more part in shaping the events of the

the needs of peace is an operation pes not suppose that all a prosperous as well as a peaceful immediate past and moulding the

which will not, brook delay. But The Magnetic Mine land, common economic planning' immediate future. lenace of invasion this and economic policy have become,

it is an operation which cannot be It was brought about by the A second important naval vic-ment Chaos will be the penalty improvised on the spur of the mo- ar has passed. But all of the thirties was a prelude the very start of the war against known publicly was achieved with in advance; and this can only be imperative. The economic atom-vigorous offensive of the Navy at tory about which rather more is of failure to plan this change-over e world can see that the to the military disasters of 1940, the German submarine campaign. the nullifying of the effects of the done by an early review of the asts of Berlin were ut-and helps in part to explain them. Rapidly though the Admiralty magnetic mine. That goes to the needs which will have the most

No system of political and military plans for establishing convoys crèdit of the scientists more than red too soon, and that guarantees can uphold indefinitely worked, they would not by them to the fighting fleet, but its im-urgent claim on our liberated re- e alternative to swallow-a structure which fails to

bring selves have defeated the U-boats. portance in the war at sea is just that the needs of Europe require sources of production. It is here decent and stable conditions of The German expectation was that as great as a defeat of the enemy to be examined in g them is to direct life to the European peoples. The some two million tons of shipping fleet, since it ensured free move with our own. conjunction tion toward other ob-mirage of domination based on would be destroyed in the first ment for our warships as well as construction is one; and it is for The work of Te- self-sufficiency must be replaced, month, and this appalling loss for our merchantmen. tives.

in Germany, and throughout must in their estimation complete- A third naval development that main responsibility for the de-

us to organise It. Europe, by an economic organisa-ly wreck any plans we had for may fairly be classed as a victory fence of civilised Europe rests on To-day the tion conceived from a European the prosecution of the war. In is the fleet's successful defiance of Britain. or, so far as may be, from a the result, the U-boats were world-wide point of view.

To-morrow, the initia- So air power to interfere with its tive for the building up of a new harried and hunted by our anti-operations. submarine flotillas that it took all dramatic encounter between

Not only the one Europe will rest on the same There's a man in Lon-

their attention looking after their power and air power during the a moment in our concentration on sea shoulders. Without slackening for own safety, and they were unable withdrawal from Dunkirk marks the present task, we must n, so it seems, who isn't

to concentrate on the merchant this victory; scores of incidents, look forward to the future task also tting a proper night's

ships.

mostly already forgotten by the if we are to undertake it with the st. It's because of noise,

In one most important respect

The total damage they were general public, have piled up the same success. Mr. Churchill revealed that plans able to inflict in this first month evidence during the year that the course. And he has were in hand for future recon- was no more than 184,241 tons, fleet, though not untouchable, la

We have undertaken and in the course of those opera-unbreakable from the air, mplained to the auth-struction.

to encourage the building up alltions we know from a statement

been, except in one or two in- ities. One might think,

It is necessary to emphasise stances, the visible drama of hun- in Parliament that they lost at these three aspects of the naval dreds of victims, in one disaster. would complain to

least six or seven vessels in three history of the past twelve months, It has been among the fringes of weeks. The actual total was pro- for they have not the picturesque the fleet that the price has been hat there 'Itler" or at anti-aircraft batteries?bably higher. In the next four drama which imprints events on most heavily, exacted-75 mine- st desist from adding Not our Londoner. Evid was one day on which three U-deed, has given us a striking illus-31 destroyers, 14 submarines are weeks the hunting went on. There the public mind, The your, in-sweepers and patrol vessels lost, the decibel dilemmaently he regards them as boats were destroyed, and by the tration of that "daily silent pres- part of the toll among the smaller at London authorities New Yorkers and other clear, guarded though the official excitement of the Battle of the here, of fifty there, perhaps of a end of three months of war it was sure" of which Mahan wrote. The craft. A casualty-list of a dozen ust face. For, one might American cliff dwellers do statements were, that the total Plate, of the destroyer attacks at hundred on occasion which would opose, there is only one their elevated trains. They forty boats. That meant that half Altmark make "history" in the peace-time becomes, by

German loss. was approaching Narvik, of the stopping of the shock public feeling to the core in y to lessen noise in Lon- make a noise which is part the available craft had been re-popular sense, but it has been the strange transmutation of values, n now, and that is by of the routine. "You get 2,000 trained officers

moved, that between 1,500 and Uttle-known, the almost unre- but an item of news in war-time. raining from adding used to it in no time." But were lost to Germany, and that really affected

and men corded events at sea, that have But at the end of a year, of war

the 5 din of anti-aircraft what a chap can't put up tion that the U-boat menace was

we had shown beyond all ques-events,

course of we may surely pause for one mo- ment to think upon not only the e to the din of bombs. with is the other fellow's not likely, in this war, to approach

victories that have been achieved, But that isn't the pro-radio, or, as in the case of our sen communications were to the dimensions it reached in 1917.

Heavy Price

the safety that has been ensured, but also upon those thousands m at all. Who said any-our Londoner, a neigh remain open, losses could be kept in men and in ships to pay for their lives, the silent, unseen There has been a heavy price who were in their deaths, as in ing about bombs and bour's rooster.

within the limit at which they the sea 'security that has been builders of both victory and could be replaced by strenuous achieved. Again there has not security.

some